


You Can't Fight City Hall (Without This Light)

by PineapplePrincess



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/F, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Same-Sex Marriage, Wedding Fluff, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 17:49:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5014213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplePrincess/pseuds/PineapplePrincess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leslie and Ann try to get married over the state of Indiana's objections - forcing Leslie to come up with a brilliant scheme to get what they both want.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can't Fight City Hall (Without This Light)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cdybedahl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cdybedahl/gifts).



> This fic is set before the advent of same-sex marriage legality in Indiana (and America-wide), which puts this story somewhere around season 3 in series time.
> 
> Hope you like it, cdybedahl!

“This is the worst mess I’ve ever seen. It looks terrible.” Ann Perkins pushed back from her overstuffed desk, disgust etched on her features. “Oh my God, _I_ look terrible.”

Leslie Knope’s head shot up from the keys of her laptop. “Never tell lies, Ann, never tell lies in front of me.”

Ann just snorted. She and Leslie had been working nonstop trying to figure out a way to get around the city ordinances that stood against them. But no matter how hard she looked she couldn’t find a loophole that would allow her to marry Leslie legally. 

Almost idly, she asked, “don’t you wish we were penguins?”

“Penguins – to my regret – are not people in the eyes of Indiana State Law. And I’d rather have health benefits and your delicious sweet love. And not have to molt in the summer.” 

Ann sighed and stood up. “Ok, I need to pee. Is there anyone else I can call to help you out?”

“I’ll be fine. I’m not giving up hope and neither are you,” Leslie declared to Ann’s retreating back. “We’re going to find a loophole in this marriage law or die trying,” she declared.

“I’d rather move to Minnesota than die,” Ann replied. Leslie grinned and pecked her on the nose. “Do you think they need nurses out there? Or we could go to Massachusetts, gay marriage will be legal there forever. I’ve heard Boston’s great this time of year.” 

Leslie gasped. “I’m not moving to the rudest city in America! They have fabulous waffles but their air quality is the butts.”

“I would never dream of asking seriously,” Ann said, blowing Leslie a kiss. “Keep going; once you clock out I’m not on call for ten hours. I’ll give you a neck rub and we’ll have coffee downtown.”

“This is why I’m marrying you,” Leslie said. “It’s like being in love with human sunshine.”

As she rushed out of the room to attend to business and mull over the day’s fruitless activity in private, Ann wondered how long they could remain sunny in the face of doom.

 

*** 

 

Rewinding the tape gave Ann no roadmap to the love that had developed between herself and her best friend. It had always been a case of mutual love and respect between them.

Then Leslie had initiated the first kiss between them at the Pawnee Fall Fair and Antique Auction. It had been very romantic – mostly because they were alone (she would later find out that most Pawneeans presumed that antiques was some code word for a long-lost communist relative). The rest of it was natural and easy; moving into Ann's little house together, re-furnishing it, helping Leslie whenever she could with whatever public works campaign she was running at the time. She’d started lamenting the time they’d wasted with other people by the time Leslie proposed via clever use of whipped cream on her pancakes at JJ’s Diner. 

That – as Ron Swanson told her when she showed everyone at the Parks And Recs Department – was a perfectly decent way to propose.

Everything since that one spike of joy had been a battle against the titans of law and morality. Leslie’s ideas had been both progressive and futile – rallies that were sparsely attended, community meetings filled with strife, meetings with Congresspeople that set Leslie even more firmly onto the path of representativehood. But Ann wouldn’t give up as long as Leslie wouldn’t. The love between them was too strong to be denied by a thousand courts.

These thoughts lingered in her mind as she pulled the door to Leslie’s office open and met April, Ron and Chris as they circled Leslie’s desk. “There you are!” Leslie called. “Come, my swan. I’ve got an _idea_.”

When Leslie uses that tone something’s about to happen. Something interesting. Ann braced herself and smiled in the same instant.

 

*** 

 

“Are you sure this is really legal?” Ann had to shout to make herself heard over the blaring traffic roaring down the highway. The soft summer wind ruffles her white dress and blows a marigold leaf up her nose, and her hands hold Leslie’s tightly, enraptured in spite of the blaring traffic. 

“We have a foot in Michigan,” she said. “It’s totally legal in a completely sneaky way! Aren’t I brilliant, baby?”

“Always, but why does the state line have to be so close to the highway?” She jumped as a flying beer can barely missed her leg. 

“Don’t worry about them! Come on, lay your vows on me, I’m so ready!”

Ann cleared her throat, her hand tightening around Leslie’s smooth, small fingers. “Leslie, ever since I met you at that town meeting you’ve been right there beside me, telling me how great I am and what a perfect person I am. Not could be, am. But you’re the one who’s got all the faith, the ambition, and the drive – and I’m going to need you right there every day telling me I can do it, ‘cause without you I can’t find my compass. You’re like my North Star, guiding me – guiding all of us – to our best selves, and I love you for it. I always will.”

Ann was aware of her friends’ quiet sniffling; that Tom and Donna had actually been moved to share a $500 silk hankie, and Jerry was openly weeping, and Ben and Chris were holding hands. Even April and Andy were sitting nearby, she still holding on to her wedding gift for Ann and Leslie – a scull sculpted out of chocolate, its brains made out of M&Ms. 

Leslie shook her head. “Ann, you saintly beauty, I have no words. There are no words, just feelings. I’m going to spend the next hundred years making you the happiest bride in Indiana; and our dog the happiest golden retriever in Pawnee. Our kids probably won’t be happy all the time but we’ll work hard to make them happy a lot. And we’ll have ice cream and walks in the rain and trips to Washington. And eventually you’ll be the greatest First Lady slash Attorney General ever and we’ll save the world, side by side.”

Ron Swanson’s expression remained impassive as he cleared his throat. “You are now officially married. Please consummate the bond with a friendly handshake.”

But they sealed it with a hearty kiss to the tune of trucks screaming by.


End file.
